ART & ARTISTS: Jean-Michel Basquiat

 Jean-Michel Basquiat, (born December 22, 1960, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died August 12, 1988, New York City), American painter known for his raw gestural style of painting with graffiti-like images and scrawled text.

Basquiat was raised in a middle-class home in Brooklyn. His mother was an American of Puerto Rican descent. She encouraged Basquiat’s interest in art, taking him to New York City’s great art museums. His parents eventually separated, and he and his sisters lived with their father in Puerto Rico from 1974 to 1976. His mother was diagnosed as mentally ill and eventually was institutionalized. Troubled by his early childhood, Basquiat dropped out of high school and left home at age 17. He lived on the streets, with friends, or in abandoned buildings and began a graffiti campaign with graffiti artists Al Diaz and Shannon Dawson. They created the persona SAMO© (said to represent “same old shit”) and painted anonymous messages—“(SAMO©) A PIN DROPS LIKE A PUNGENT ODOR…” and “SAMO©…JUST IN CASE…”—on walls around SoHo and the East Village and on the D train of the New York City subway system.’

SOURCE: Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Jean-Michel Basquiat. Britannica School. Retrieved January 22, 2022, from https://school.eb.com.au/levels/high/article/Jean-Michel-Basquiat/435776

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